


find a reason to sing

by grancenturio



Category: The Caligula Effect (Video Game)
Genre: Canon - Anime, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-06-05 04:26:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15162638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grancenturio/pseuds/grancenturio
Summary: Ritsu's still working on this whole "talking to others" thing. μ tries her best to help.





	find a reason to sing

**Author's Note:**

> gee kensuke how come the anime lets you have two senpais?
> 
> hi i'm back to my regular kenritsu posting, now with a bonus side of shingo

It starts, as usual, with μ.

Ritsu's only been back in the real world for slightly over a week, and most of it has been spent in the safety of his room, curtains drawn and computer screens dimly illuminating the otherwise darkened space.

So maybe he might have made that grand speech about opening up to others and finding his happiness and all that, but it still doesn't change the fact that talking to other people face-to-face is scary. He's trying — the club's WIRE group chat which Aria preserved is already one more interaction than he'd had before Mobius — but the thought of leaving the impersonal safety of the message screen, of showing his real face to the other club members, still fills him with an irrational sense of anxiety every time he so much as considers it. He's trying, okay, but these things take time and at least he's planning to slowly ease himself into it.

And then, of course, μ interferes.

 _Ritsu,_  she asks one day.  _Ritsu, the meetup at Sea Paraizo last weekend was really fun! It's a pity you weren't there. Why don't you go to the next one?_

Ritsu, in the middle of stirring a cup of instant ramen, pauses to read the messages off his phone.  _I… didn't feel well,_ he sends in reply. Really, he'd wanted to go, but thinking about it had left his stomach churning and in the end he'd just picked the safe option of staying home until his nausea subsided.

 _You were sick? Are you better now?_ comes μ’s worried query. Ritsu reads it, and smiles. Her endearingly childlike innocence never fails to do that to him.

 _Yeah,_ he says.  _Don't worry, I'm fine._

_That's good! It'd be awful if you weren't, after Kensuke and Shingo came all the way to visit you!_

Ritsu reads that last message, and blinks. Then he reads it again. _Visit?_  he asks, but before he can type any more, he's interrupted by the sound of someone obnoxiously mashing his doorbell on loop.

“Ritsu-seeenpaaaiiiii?” comes an equally obnoxious voice, accompanied by knuckles loudly rapping on his door. “Are you in, Ritsu-senpai? You are, riiight?”

For a very brief moment, Ritsu considers running to the balcony and flinging himself off. He doesn't, but only because he's distracted by the soft _ding!_ of a new message from μ.

_They're here! You should go invite them in._

Ritsu, at a complete loss, just stares at his phone with his fingers hovering over the keyboard.

“Heeeeey! Ritsu-senpaaaiii! I know you're in, μ just told us so!”

There's bile rising in his throat again, and he can feel his heart starting to beat faster. He's not sure how long he stays standing there, but he does know that by the time he's aware of himself again, the knocking has stopped and there's yet another message waiting for him.

 _What's wrong, Ritsu?_ Another _ding_ , as he reads it.  _They're asking if they should leave. Should I tell them to?_

Swallowing down his nausea, Ritsu taps out a quick reply before shoving his phone into his pocket. _No, it's fine._

Crossing the room to the door, he slowly pulls it open, blinking rapidly at the sudden brightness that assaults him. Outside, just as μ said, Kensuke and Shingo stand waiting.

“U-Uh. Hi.” His voice comes out slightly cracked, and Ritsu immediately hates himself for it.

“..Hey.” Shingo awkwardly raises a hand in greeting, a sheepish expression on his face. “You've been on leave ever since you woke up, and Hibiki wanted to come check on you or something.”

Kensuke, for his part, is far more forward. “Hah… and I even went through all that effort to get tickets to Sea Paraizo. You missed the group outing, so I was going to drag both of you along on a bonding trip to make up for it. Sigh…” He says rather than actually sighs the last word, shaking his head in an exaggerated manner for emphasis. Just as quickly, though, he perks up again, not at all hiding his attempt to peer past Ritsu into the darkened apartment behind. “Hey, can we go in instead? I kind of want to know more about what you’re like in reality, to tell the truth.”

“Hibiki…” Shingo, already schooling his face into a stern look, shakes his head, likely preparing to say something.

“Ah, like I said, you can just call me by name, Shingo-senpai! It'll help us get to know each other much faster!”

_“Hibiki.”_

“Yes, okay,  _fine_. I get it.” Kensuke finally deigns to step out of Ritsu's personal space, pouting as he does so. “Um, sorry, senpai. I got a little carried away there.”

Ritsu swallows again. His anxiety is screaming at him to brush the two off and lock himself back into his apartment, but he forces himself to ignore it. Baby steps, and all that. “Y-You can come in, I guess,” he mutters, stepping to one side and making a small, awkward motion towards his doorway.

“Then, I'm going in!” Kensuke wastes no time in cheerfully kicking his shoes off and practically skipping into the apartment. Shingo makes to follow, but pauses to look at Ritsu with a critical frown.

“You don't have to entertain him, you know, Shikishima. He may be your friend, but—”

“It's fine.” Forcing a strained smile onto his face, Ritsu cuts Shingo off. “Y-You come in too, Tachibana-san. I have stuff to s-show you.”

“Well, if you say so.” The doubtful furrow doesn't fully leave Shingo’s face, but he does follow Kensuke’s lead in removing his shoes and entering the apartment.

Before he closes the door, Ritsu pauses to fish his phone out of his pocket.  _Okay then! Good luck!_  reads μ's last cheery message to him, and he lets himself bask in it for a moment, as if drawing strength from her support.

Then he pulls the door shut, and goes to join the other two.

* * *

“So, senpai.” Kensuke, predictably, is the first to break the silence. “What have you been up to?”

They're sitting around the low table in the middle of Ritsu's apartment, sipping on cups of tea. Shingo's sneaking all too unsubtly interested glances at Ritsu's workstation, and pursing his mouth like a disapproving mother whenever his gaze lands on the disaster of empty cup noodle bowls and coffee cans that passes for Ritsu's kitchen counter.

Ritsu answers with a hesitant shrug. “...w-well, stuff…”

“......” The following silence somehow manages to stretch on even more awkwardly.

Thankfully, before Ritsu can mentally beat himself up too much, Kensuke's phone beeps softly, and he pulls it out with a quick murmur of apology.

“Oh!” Kensuke's grinning at whatever he’s just read. “μ says hello and welcome. You're included too, of course, Shingo-senpai!”

“Right.” Immensely grateful for the save, Ritsu wastes no time jumping straight onto it. “T-That’s what I wanted to show you, Tachibana-san.” Getting up, he moves quickly over to his workstation, dropping himself with an easy familiarity into the seat and letting his fingers fly across the keyboard. “I ran some diagnostics, and it looks like when I shut down Mobius I also erased most of μ and Aria's programming. So they're back to the original empty Virtuadolls they started as, but—”

He slams his finger down on the Enter key with a satisfying _click_ , and onscreen, the μ program begins to boot.

“—I’ve been working on restoring μ, and right now she's mostly just a chat AI, but—”

“Wait, wait.” Shingo cuts him off with a perplexed look, his hands raised placatingly. “Don't tell me you're actually trying to recreate this Mobius thing? Are you intending to go back in?”

At that, Ritsu snaps his mouth shut. He can't deny that the thought has occurred to him more than once. It does hold a certain appeal, living out the rest of his life in a virtual paradise alone except for μ. It wouldn’t be impossible, either; he’s pretty sure he remembers enough of μ’s original code to recreate a custom Mobius just for him, but…

“No… I don't think that's what senpai means.” Once again, it's Kensuke who comes to his rescue. “We've… all of the club members owe a lot to μ, you see. So it doesn't feel right to just continue with our own lives in reality and forget about her. That’s… my opinion, at least,” he finishes with a grin.

“I… see.”

At that moment, the cheery tones of μ's startup jingle plays. All three of them are distracted by the screen blinking to life, a familiar background of floating cubes visible behind the model of μ who's waving at them from behind the screen.

 _It's been a while, Kensuke!_ The words fade into existence onscreen, and μ leans forward as if to peer more closely at their group.  _Ah, it's my first time meeting you for real, but you must be Shingo, right? Ritsu's told me so much about you!_

“I'm still working on restoring her voice banks and speech synthesizer, so she can't talk yet.” Swiveling his chair around, Ritsu stands up, gesturing vaguely in its direction as he does so. “Also, I haven’t finished fine-tuning her voice recognition, so it’s better if you just type for now.”

Almost hesitantly, Shingo moves to take Ritsu's place at the keyboard.  _Hello, μ_ , he finally types.

μ does a little curtsey behind the screen.  _Hello, it's nice to meet you!_

“Uh…” His hands hovering above the keyboard, Shingo leans back to look at Ritsu with a questioning expression. “What should I say here?”

“Whatever y-you want.” That damnable stammer has kicked in again, now that the conversation has slipped back to more normal topics. “I usually just t-tell her about my day, or… something.”

“Okay.” Shingo still looks doubtful, but he does type  _How are you?_  in.

 _I'm fine!_ μ clasps her hands together and tilts her head, as if waiting for further input.

Shingo just stares at the keyboard again. “I’m don’t think I’m really cut out for this.”

“Honestly… you kind of suck, Shingo-senpai.” Leaning over him, Kensuke lightly pushes Shingo’s hands off the keyboard to type in his own greeting.  _Shingo-senpai’s just shy, don’t let it get to you._

 _Oh! I see! I hope we’ll become closer friends soon, then!_ μ claps her hands excitedly, her eyes closed in a bright smile.

“I don’t get it.” Shingo slumps in the chair with a defeated sigh. “How are the both of you managing to talk to a program so easily?”

“S-She’s not just a program!” Ritsu doesn’t even realize the outburst was his until after he’s said it. Swallowing hard, he continues, “μ is… special. Her core is a program, but there’s something else that makes her what she is. She’s a p-person in her own way.”

“Everyone’s feelings got through to her, or something like that,” Kensuke adds, smoothly. “Ah, what if you let Shingo-senpai talk to her on WIRE like the rest of us are doing? He might be the type who’s more comfortable with texting.”

“T-That’s a good idea. μ learns from conversation, so the more people she has to talk to the faster she’ll grow. I haven’t let her talk to anyone outside the club members yet to prevent another Mobius incident, but Tachibana-san should be safe enough.”

“Mmhm!” Again, Kensuke goes to take over the keyboard.  _Ritsu-senpai says you can add Shingo-senpai on WIRE too._

 _Alright! I’ll do that right away, then!_ The μ onscreen materializes a phone in her hand and taps cheerfully away at it.  _There, it’s done!_

Shingo just sighs. “I’ll take a look at it, I guess.”

Another awkward silence stretches, until Shingo breaks it by up getting up from the chair. Turning, he pats Ritsu lightly on the shoulder, smiling faintly as he does so.

“I should go soon. It’s good to see that you’re well, though, Shikishima. I hope you can return to work soon — you’re the best programmer we have, really.” There’s a slight grimace at the end of that sentence that sends a twinge of guilt through Ritsu. He’s read about the company’s troubles after the Virtuadoll scandal, and… well, it  _is_ kind of selfish for him to continue staying locked in this apartment for much longer.

“Aw… I guess this is my cue to leave too?” Despite his complaint, Kensuke follows Shingo out of the apartment. “I’m glad I got to see you again, senpai! Ah, I still have those Sea Paraizo tickets, if you ever want to go. Or, alternatively…” He seems to be working himself up to say something, biting his lip and looking pointedly away from Ritsu.

“Y-You can visit again if you want,” Ritsu blurts out before he can persuade himself it’s a bad idea. Kensuke blinks at him, a smile slowly stretching onto his face like he’s a cat that just got the cream. “J-Just tell me before you do next time.”

Kensuke hums a wordless sound of assent. “I’ll do that. See you again, senpai!” There’s a definite skip in his step as he leaves, Shingo a step ahead and clearly trying his best to tune out Kensuke’s chatter.

Ritsu watches the other two leave, the knot in his stomach finally starting to untangle now that he’s alone again.

* * *

It’s only much later that something occurs to him.

 _How did they even get my address?_  he asks μ absentmindedly later. It’s more of musing than a real question.

 _Oh, I gave it to them,_  she answers instantly.  _Um, was it wrong of me to do that? They’re your friends, right, Ritsu?_

 _Yeah,_ Ritsu types back after a moment of consideration.  _It was nice to see them again, actually. Thanks._

_You’re welcome! Oh, Shingo just texted me. I’m going to focus on talking to him now, okay?_

_Yeah._ Ritsu watches μ’s little online status dot go dark, and smiles to himself. Baby steps, but he’s getting there.

**Author's Note:**

> as you can probably guess I have A Lot Of Beef with how the anime ended, and how better to deal with it than to write postcanon fic featuring my three favorite characters loving and supporting each other?
> 
> i like this verse too much to not continue writing in it eventually, but for now... (laughs nervously and looks at my backlog of half-finished fics instead)


End file.
